Carl Hagelin scored his first three goals of the season over the weekend

Every Wednesday we’ll take a look at the status of the
Rangers’ AHL affiliate. Top prospects Ryan Bourque and Carl Hagelin will
be key players for the Whale this season - we’ll check on how they’re doing and
how the team performs as the season progresses.

- Over the weekend the New York Rangers recalled Brendan Bell from the CT Whale for their Western Canada road trip and also recalled forward
Kris Newbury, who had factored into each of the first eight goals scored by the
Whale this season.

- New York assigned winger Mats Zuccarello to the Whale, where
he’ll immediately become one of the team’s most important offensive
players.The Rangers want Zuccarello to
play much more than he was in New York, but with no openings on the Rangers’
top lines Zuccarello could be in the AHL for awhile.Zuccarello seems upbeat
about his demotion.

- The Whale lost two shootouts this weekend, first on Friday
to the Albany Devils and then on Saturday to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

As the Rangers were losing to the New York Islanders,
Connecticut fell to the Islanders’ AHL affiliate, the Sound Tigers, 5-4 in a
shootout.John Mitchell and Brendan Bell scored in the skills competition, but Chad Johnson allowed three Sound Tigers
to score.Johnson made 23 saves on 27
shots during the game.

- Like the Rangers, Connecticut has had trouble getting
secondary scoring.Newbury and Hagelin have seven goals combined, but Andre Deveaux is the Whale’s only other
goal-scorer. The call-up of Newbury means that Connecticut will have to
reconfigure its top line.Newbury,
Hagelin and Deveaux had provided virtually all of the Whale’s offense.

- Ryan Bourque was not in Connecticut’s lineup for Saturday’s
home-opener because
of illness, but he should play this weekend.Defenseman Pavel Valentenko and Lee Baldwin could also return to the lineup.

- There’s been no indication that Sean Avery is close to making
his Whale debut.

- Connecticut has three games in a row this weekend.First the Whale will host the Manchester
Monarchs, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, on Friday at 7:00
p.m.Then Connecticut will play a
home-and-home against the Springfield Falcons, Columbus’s farm team, on
Saturday and Sunday at 7:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., respectively.

- The Whale had the third-highest attendance among Eastern
Conference teams for the team’s home-opener, drawing
8,832.